Construction work on St. Albert Crossing is expected to resume next month and finish this year.
The three-storey building, located next to Socrates Restaurant on St. Albert Trail, was planned as a medical professional centre. Development stalled after the former general partner, Paramount Group of Companies, was asked to step down from the project.
In April, Avenue Commercial, a Calgary-based real estate firm, was appointed as the new general partner. President Steven Butt said Avenue Commercial is known as a turn-around company for troubled real estate.
“When real estate assets get in trouble Avenue Commercial is quite often either requested or court appointed to go in and turn around the situation and get the projects back on track again,” he said.
Butt said a class-action lawsuit was filed against Paramount Group after which the company was asked to leave the project.
Alberta Securities Commission documents show Paramount, owned by Samir Sawhney and Adeeb Azizi, appeared before the commission in September 2012.
They were found to have distributed and traded securities and limited partnerships on numerous building projects without registration.
The documents show the company had raised approximately $15.3 million and $18 million from investors in July and August of 2007 on developments in the Edmonton region, including St. Albert Crossing. Most of the investors were Alberta residents.
A land title document shows the company further owes almost $4.1 million in liens to companies and individuals involved in the development of St. Albert Crossing.
Butt said many of the tradespeople are owed money because the building is not fully completed.
“It’s not that they are owed a lot of money. Their contracts were to completion and the building is not complete yet,” he said.
“So they are owed money for future work. Some money is owed for present work that has been unpaid, but there is also money in the trades owed for future work.”
The building is now about 95-per-cent complete. Butt said construction should start again in early July and finish within 90 days. Tenants are expected to move in by the new year.
He added that some potential tenants offered to lease space in the building for medical uses. Some space may also be used for government, he said.
Asked whether his company will employ the same contractors used by the Paramount Group, Butt said he was making arrangements for that.
“We like to, absolutely. We like to have them come back and finish the job, get it up and running and have everybody taken care of. That is our plan,” he said.
